Gallery: Crowdsourced citizen science with the bugs of Iberia

Something as simple as a bug can really be quite spectacular.

Yesterday, as we were working on an article about how photo sharing sites can help scientists do their work, we stumbled across a link to a Flickr group with a title that, at first glance, doesn't exactly suggest excitement and beauty: Heteroptera from the Iberian Peninsula. At second glance, things looked even worse, given that heteroptera are more commonly known as the "true bugs." Yet a quick glance at the page revealed photos that are simply stunning. So we thought we'd share them with you.

And remember, as our other article discusses, these aren't just pretty images. The metadata and location information that Flickr can store can make each of these images a valuable resource for people tracking rare and invasive species.

jacinta lluch valero (jaclluch at Flickr)

Part of the group Cydnidae, these are a type of shield bug. These two are apparently on the verge of producing a number of additional shield bugs.

jacinta lluch valero (jaclluch at Flickr)

Part of the group Cydnidae, these are a type of shield bug. These two are apparently on the verge of producing a number of additional shield bugs.

Promoted Comments

If you're posting photos of plants and animals to Flickr, consider sharing them with the Encyclopedia of Life Flickr group under a Creative Commons license. EOL (eol.org) harvests Flickr images on a daily basis and makes them more widely available on EOL species pages.

I have to admit, when I saw the headline, I wondered if it was talking about Georgia (the country, not the US state).

I was gonna ask how you came to that conclusion, since the only Iberia I knew was the home of Portugal and Spain on the westernmost part of Europe. Then I googled Georgia and sure enough, there was this "ancient kingdom of Iberia" in the Caucasus. You learn something new every day

If you're posting photos of plants and animals to Flickr, consider sharing them with the Encyclopedia of Life Flickr group under a Creative Commons license. EOL (eol.org) harvests Flickr images on a daily basis and makes them more widely available on EOL species pages.

I have to plug my father's blog here. He's been doing citizen science since before it was cool, and he and my mother take great pictures. He also has a site for robber flies, and general galleries here.